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On Thursday, October 20, the New Jersey Senate is scheduled to vote on two anti-gun measures: SCR117- the legislature’s latest attempt to kill State Police regulations recommended by Governor Christie to incrementally improve right to carry, and S152 -- legislation that would criminalize possession of ammunition that is already banned under existing law.

Please contact all Senate Members and tell them to vote NO on SCR117 and S152. Tell them instead (1) to recognize the right of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves with a firearm, and (2) to not waste legislative resources banning ammunition that has already been prohibited.

SCR117 is the latest procedural trick by anti-gun legislators to kill new State Police regulations recommended by Governor Christie making an incremental improvement in right to carry that would allow those facing “serious threats” to qualify for a carry permit.

Outraged by the new regulations, anti-gun lawmakers have tried since May to kill them under an obscure provision of the state Constitution allowing the legislature to invalidate administrative regulations under certain circumstances. While it is questionable whether those circumstances even exist, a technical dispute between the legislature and the executive branch over the summer forced anti-gun lawmakers to invoke additional procedures in order to proceed. SCR117 was the result.

Anti-gun legislators, who themselves enjoy the armed protection of State House security details, hypocritically are working to block everyone else’s self-defense rights.

S152 would criminalize possession of the SS190AP (armor-piercing) round for the FN Five-Seven handgun – ammunition that is already banned under existing federal and state law: 18 U.S.C. 922(a)(7) and (8) prohibit the manufacture or import of armor-piercing ammunition, and N.J.S. 2C:39-3f bans armor-piercing ammunition. The round is not even available to civilians.

S152 is therefore redundant with existing law and the need for the legislation is non-existent. It would neither change anything nor make anyone safer.

Banning hardware always fails to reduce gun crime, because someone bent on doing evil will not be deterred when one particular tool is unavailable. The criminal misuse of ANY type of ammunition should be severely punished, not just the SS190AP. This legislation does absolutely nothing to punish or deter criminals who use ammunition that is not banned, and squanders an opportunity to meaningfully address gun crime.